Suspect Joei Jordan is 20.

What’s next

The two suspects charged in DeWolf’s killing — Joei Jordan, 20, and Shaquille Jones, 21 — have preliminary hearings scheduled this month to determine whether there is enough evidence to send them to trial. Jones’ hearing is set for Thursday. Jordan’s hearing is Dec. 12. Dajeon Franklin, who is suspected in DeWolf’s death, has not been charged. Prosecutors have declined to comment on the status of the investigation.

Suspect Shaquille Jones is 21.

Thom DeWolf looks over family photos of Paul DeWolf while at home Sept. 5 in Schoolcraft. / Andre J. Jackson/Detroit Free Press

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Paul DeWolf was asleep late that Tuesday night, scheduled to work the next morning at the Ann Arbor VA Hospital.

The sound of the door opening to his basement room in the Phi Rho Sigma house near the University of Michigan campus startled him. Three men crept in and shut the door.

DeWolf, 25, lifted his head and asked what was going on. One of the intruders pointed a gun and ordered him not to move.

At some point, DeWolf got out of bed and groped for something on his dresser. The man with the gun tried to hit DeWolf with the weapon and it went off.

The popular University of Michigan medical student was shot in the neck and killed.

That account of DeWolf’s last moments is detailed in statements police say two of the suspects made when they were arrested in early November in South Carolina. Ann Arbor police Detective Katie Nucci recalled the statements at a hearing before Magistrate Colleen Currie in Ann Arbor District Court on Nov. 22, where she was seeking murder warrants for Joei Jordan, 20, and Shaquille Jones, 21.

The transcripts of Nucci’s testimony, obtained by the Detroit Free Press, show how DeWolf, a promising surgeon, was gunned down in seconds, allegedly by three men who came to Ann Arbor in search of homes to burglarize and randomly targeted the room where DeWolf was sleeping.

The testimony also provides new details on how detectives were able to track the suspects, including a third man who is suspected but not yet charged in DeWolf’s death. That man, according to the other two, was the shooter.

Stolen laptop provides a clue

Jordan and Jones told detectives that they, along with Dajeon Franklin of Pittsfield Township, decided to head to downtown Ann Arbor to break into some homes.

It was the night of July 23. The three went to a home on North Ingalls, not far from U-M’s medical campus.

Jordan slipped through a window, grabbed a laptop, handed it out to the other two, and came back out, Nucci said. A U-M student was inside, but later told police she wasn’t overly concerned when she heard noises downstairs, because she assumed it was a roommate.

The three men then turned to the home next door — a stately brick, three-story English Tudor that houses 26 members of Phi Rho Sigma, a coed medical student association.

Jordan entered alone through an open rear window, Nucci testified, as the other two remained outside. He emerged a short time later with a PlayStation 3, taken from a basement rec room in the house, concealed in his backpack.

“He stated that while he was inside, there was a male and female who he heard coming, and he hid from their view as they walked by and exited out the door,” Nucci told the magistrate.

Once outside, Jordan saw a man and woman in the kitchen of the frat house who appeared to be eating cereal.

Undeterred, they decided to go back in to find more items to steal.

Jordan climbed back through the window and let the other two in through a rear door, Jones told detectives. Eventually, they ended up in the basement, where they hid in a utility closet when they heard two students coming down a hallway, Nucci testified.

They made their way to room S3, where DeWolf lived. The intruders noticed a towel underneath the crack of the door, Nucci testified.

They went in.

“Jones stated that he opened up the unlocked door, went into the bedroom and Franklin and Joei Jordan followed him and shut the door behind him,” Nucci testifed. “According to Jones, when they entered the room, the noise of opening the door startled the subject that was sleeping in the bed.”

Jordan, in a separate interrogation, provided more detail.

“According to Jordan, when they entered into the room, a male subject who was laying in bed got up out of bed and was asking what was going on. Jordan stated that it was at that time that Franklin pulled out a handgun and pointed it at (DeWolf),” Nucci said. “Franklin ordered DeWolf not to move. According to Jordan, at some point DeWolf grabbed something off of his desk and/or drawer and started to move toward Franklin, at which time Franklin raised the gun and attempted to strike DeWolf with the gun, and the gun at that time fired.”

DeWolf screamed, Jordan told investigators.

The three men ran.

The next day, shortly after 11 a.m., DeWolf’s body was found by fellow medical students who grew worried when he didn’t show up for his shift at the hospital.

An autopsy the next day showed DeWolf died of a single gunshot wound to the neck.

'Find My Mac' is a help

On July 25, the day after DeWolf’s body was found, Jordan sold the Apple Air laptop that was stolen from the house next door to an Ypsilanti man for $200, according to testimony from Nucci.

The student who owned that laptop, who declined comment to the Free Press, had an application called “Find My Mac” on the computer. She directed Apple to contact her if the computer connected to the Internet, according to court documents.

Nucci told Magistrate Currie that detectives believed the two home invasions next door to each other were “possibly related.”

So when Apple was alerted Oct. 3 that the stolen computer was turned on, police sprang into action.

They traced the computer to a home on Glynn Court in Detroit. A 30-year-old man there said he had bought it from an Ypsilanti man through Craigslist.

“I knew it was something more than a stolen laptop since Ann Arbor police came all the way here,” the man, who asked not to be identified, told the Free Press.

Police followed the trail from the Ypsilanti man to Jordan’s cousin, who confirmed Jordan and Jones were present when the computer was sold, the court record said. Records show Jordan’s cell phone was pinging off a tower near the home where the computer was stolen the night of the break-in, according to the court record.

That was enough evidence to get warrants to arrest Jordan and Jones on a charge of receiving and concealing stolen property more than $1,000 but less than $20,000. Jordan also was charged with first-degree home invasion.

Police off to South Carolina

On Nov. 5, armed with the arrest warrants, several Ann Arbor detectives headed to South Carolina.

Jordan was arrested in Sumter County. According to a report by the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, an Ann Arbor taxi cab business card, a U-M cup and other items were found in his home.

Jones was captured in an apartment in North Charleston. Officers searched it and found a duffel bag belonging to Jones on the floor near the bed, which contained two loaded, stolen handguns, according to a police report.

It’s unclear whether the weapon used to kill DeWolf has been recovered. Ann Arbor Detective Lt. Robert Pfannes declined to comment on the court records Saturday.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” he said. “It is premature and counterproductive to be commenting on these details.”

Both Jordan and Jones agreed to talk to detectives, Nucci said. Court records show they offered similar accounts of what happened that night.

When asked whether they knew Franklin had a gun, both men said yes and that he always carried one, according to Nucci’s testimony.

Currie signed warrants on Nov. 22 charging Jordan and Jones with murder and home invasion.

Franklin was arrested Nov. 6 — the day after Jones and Jordan — on a bond violation stemming from a second-degree home invasion charge. That burglary occurred in May in the 700 block of Arch Street in Ann Arbor.

A search warrant was executed the day Franklin was arrested at the apartment he shares with his mother. Police took clothes, computers and shoes.

Franklin has not been charged in connection with DeWolf’s death. Washtenaw County prosecutors have declined to discuss the case.

After a recent court hearing for the bond violation, Franklin’s court-appointed attorney, Walter White Jr., told the Free Press that he’s aware Franklin is a suspect in a homicide investigation. He said Franklin hadn’t made any statements to police.

“I haven’t seen any evidence at all or heard anything from anybody ... that would tie him to the murder case,” White said then. He could not be reached Friday.

Defense attorney David Goldstein of Ann Arbor, who represents Jordan, told the Free Press last week that he’s aware police believe they can tie his client to the stolen computer. He declined to say what defense he might present, saying it’s too early to discuss.

Jones’ attorney could not be reached.

New pain for family

For the DeWolf family of Schoolcraft in southwest Michigan, the holidays are bringing fresh pain as new details about their son’s death emerge.

“Yesterday was a very difficult day,” Thom DeWolf, Paul DeWolf’s father, said on Friday — the day after Thanksgiving. “It’s our first major holiday without him.”

Paul DeWolf, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, expected to graduate in the spring. He wanted to serve his country, perform surgeries and take medical missions, his parents have said.

DeWolf ran marathons, played volleyball, scuba dived and played several musical instruments, including the piano, French horn and more recently, the acoustic guitar. He was the middle of three children.

This year, the rest of his family traveled out-of-state to spend time with relatives — a change from Thanksgivings past. They talk frequently of the son they lost.

“It’s not the elephant in the room,” Thom DeWolf said. “We have wonderful memories.”